Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

OVERVIEW The opportunity to prevent disease and death and to enhance the quality of people’s lives through improved sanitation in the developing world is greater than ever.

More than 40 percent of the world’s population—about 2.5 billion people, primarily in rural areas—still practice open defecation or use pit latrines that do not safely contain their waste. Another 2.1 billion people who live in urban areas are only containing their waste and not disposing of it safely.

Today there are effective new approaches to create demand for sanitation in areas that still practice A mother and child stand in front of a latrine. This village in the Gondola district is open-defecation free, which means every household has and uses a latrine (Venceremos, Mozambique, 2009). open defecation or unsafe sanitation. New investments in sanitation OUR APPROACH are investing in opportunities across tools and technologies—including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation the entire Sanitation Value Chain latrine design, pit emptying, sludge works with a wide range of partners (see graphic, p. 2). Waste must first treatment, and the disposal or reuse through its Water, Sanitation & be captured and stored so that it does of waste—have the potential to Hygiene initiative to reduce the not come in contact with people or make sanitation services safe and burden of water-borne disease and contaminate the local environment. In sustainable for the poor. improve the lives of the poor. We densely populated urban areas, waste Real progress on sanitation holds the have a number of existing grants must also be extracted, transported, promise of tackling a persistent, and that support sustainable approaches treated, and disposed of safely. Both preventable, scourge in the developing to clean water and hygiene, but our cities and rural villages can potentially world: the water-borne illnesses that funding now focuses on sanitation, reuse excreta for agricultural purposes kill 1.6 million children each year. particularly in Africa and Asia, and energy generation. Improved sanitation has profound where the burden of poor sanitation is highest. More than two times as Providing people with safe and economic, educational, and social sustainable sanitation services benefits. It makes workers more many people lack safe sanitation as safe water. means more than simply giving productive, keeps children in school, them a latrine or toilet. Indeed, this and increases dignity, particularly for Our approach aims to expand the use approach has failed in many cases. women and girls. of sanitation that does not connect Instead, it means understanding the to a sewer, as this is by far the most contexts in which poor people live common type used by the poor. We and local companies and government

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agencies operate. With this knowledge, it is possible to find development of business models and technologies that lasting solutions that stimulate household demand for safe make sanitation without sewers the preferred solution for sanitation, encourage businesses to provide affordable-yet- millions of people. durable sanitation products and services, and motivate Policy and Advocacy governments to establish effective sanitation policies. We fund advocacy work that informs governments and the international community about successful sanitation WHAT WE DO approaches and encourages changes in policy and funding We focus our grantmaking on three main areas: priorities to accelerate access to sustainable sanitation. By building broad support among key-decision makers, we Ending Open Defecation aim to achieve a wider impact that goes beyond our direct We support the wide-scale implementation of an effective grantmaking activities. approach to rural sanitation in order to end open defecation and upgrade unsafe latrines. The core of this approach involves stimulating demand for improved sanitation within rural communities. In addition to triggering demand, we aim to encourage local entrepreneurs to offer a range of affordable, desirable sanitation products. To reach scale and sustain momentum of this approach, we are also working to improve the policy and regulatory environment and build the capacity of local governments to support improved sanitation. Investment in Sanitation Tools and Technologies By investing in the development of improved latrine design, pit emptying, sludge treatment, and the disposal or reuse of waste, we aim to make sanitation services both safe Workers pump sewage in Teshie, an overcrowded slum area where poor and sustainable for the poor. Our goal is to encourage the sanitation has become a serious problem (Teshie, Ghana, 2009).

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. For additional information on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, please visit our web site: www.gatesfoundation.org. © 2010 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries.

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